HEIGHTS OF COURAGE

Austin Butler takes to the skies in a big-budget drama about the US Air Force's most deadly wartime mission

- SEAN MARLAND

NEW DRAMA 

Masters of the Air From Friday 26 Jan, Apple TV+ (first two eps on 26 Jan, then weekly)

Hollywood icons Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg have brought a range of World War Two stories to the screen over the years, taking us from the beaches of Normandy in Band of Brothers to the far-flung Japanese island of Iwo Jima in The Pacific.

Now, the high-profile pair are taking to the skies with Masters of the Air, a thrilling wartime tale for Apple TV +.

Featuring a stellar cast and spectacular action sequences, the nine-part series tells the real-life story of the US Air Force’s 100th Bomb Group, nicknamed the ‘Bloody Hundredth’ due to the heavy losses it incurred in combat missions.

This week’s opening double-bill begins in 1943, as the unit arrives in Britain and prepares to embark on a perilous campaign of high-precision daytime bombing, targeting the Nazis' airfields, industrial plants and naval facilities.